The invention generally relates to the aseptic transfer of solutions out of one or more biological fluid and/or process fluid storage or supply containers. Single-use manifold systems carry out transfers needed in bioprocessing applications. With the invention, automated dispensing is accomplished, preferably in association with one or more remotely controlled pinch valves.
Good manufacturing practices and governmental regulations are at the core of any pharmaceutical, biotechnology and biomedical manufacturing process or procedure. Such manufacturing processes and procedures as well as associated equipment must undergo mandated, often lengthy and costly validation procedures.
For example, the equipment used for the separation and purification of biomedical products must, for obvious reasons, meet stringent cleanliness requirements. The cleaning validation of new or re-commissioned purification equipment (such as equipment for preparative chromatography or tangential flow filtration) may require as many as 50 test-swabs of exposed surfaces and subsequent biological assays of such test-swabs. For a single piece of purification equipment, the associated and reoccurring cost of a single cleaning validation may readily exceed multiple thousands of dollars.
To reduce such cleaning validation costs and expenses, and/or to reduce the occasions when cleaning is needed or required, the pharmaceutical and biotech industries are increasingly employing, pre-sterilized, single-use, plastic tubing and collapsible, plastic bags for solution transfer and storage. Sterilization is accomplished by exposing the complete tube/bag manifold to gamma irradiation, or to an ethylene oxide atmosphere. The pre-sterilized, aseptically packaged tube/bag manifolds are commercially available (currently from TC Tech; HyClone; St Gobain Performance Plastics, for example) and are used for the manual transfer of solutions. Typically, the solution transfer procedure requires a technician to operate a peristaltic pump and to manually open and close tube clamps for diverting the solution from the reservoir to the storage bags. Although this procedure reduces the cleaning efforts and cleaning validation expense, operator interaction and time still are required, and these approaches are dependent upon operator expertise for consistent accuracy and precision.
Dispensing approaches having automated features (which can include sensors, monitors and programmable controllers) are generally known. Keys et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,063 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,960 describe fluid dispensing units which control fluid volumes in conjunction with a closed loop approach, which these patents suggest can avoid the need for venting. The fluid to be dispensed exits the closed loop apparatus through a fill tube, as directed by a controller. Such approaches do not address the cleaning needs and/or cleaning validation costs and expenses, were these types of systems to be used in pharmaceutical and biotech industries for dispensing, directing, combining or separating biological or chemical fluids.
Prior systems can incorporate diaphragm valves, which come into direct contact with the process solution, and these valves are a potential source of contamination. Thus diaphragm valves require costly cleaning validation procedures.
It has been found that, by proceeding in accordance with the present invention, significant cost savings and better performance can be realized in a system which incorporates automated, aseptic manifolds within the field of technology which embraces pre-sterilized, single-use plastic tubing and containers having at least one collapsible portion. The components which contact the biological or chemical fluid are each presterilized and disposable after use.
The present invention is directed to manifold units which are presterilized and disposable, making them single-use units which are sterilized and packaged so as to be usable xe2x80x9coff the shelfxe2x80x9d and which thus directly address the problem of tedious and time consuming cleaning and testing at the use site. Multiple embodiments are disclosed. Each includes tubing lengths and a plurality of single-use storage or collection bags, each having multiple inlet and/or outlet passages which are selectively openable and closeable. The tubing lengths interact with one or more pinch valves which are operable remotely. Remote operation is automated by a controller programmed to carry out procedures according to a selected embodiment.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide improved single-use manifolds for automated, aseptic transfer of solutions in bio-processing or chemical processing applications.
Anther object of the present invention is to provide improved apparatus and method which combine pinch valve use with disposable, sterilized manifold dispenser units.
Another object of this invention is to provide improved apparatus and method which greatly reduce the expenditure of time and resources devoted to cleaning procedures for transfer equipment used in pharmaceutical and biological industries and laboratories where contamination of biological and/or chemical fluids cannot be tolerated.
An aspect of the present invention is to reduce the need for validation procedures for equipment used in separation and purification of fluids such as in conjunction with the preparation, separation and dispensing of biomedical products.
Another aspect of this invention is that it handles cleanliness requirements for procedures such as fluid dispensing, preparative chromatography and tangential flow filtration while automating operation thereof.
These and other objects, aspects, features, improvements and advantages of the present invention will be clearly understood through a consideration of the following detailed description.